A Dangerous Game (A Hunger Games Fan Fiction)

Epilogue

Epilogue

       I felt alive in the woods. The birds were singing merrily, the sky looked peppy which made me feel the same. In light of everything that went on three months ago, things had definitely improved. The Peacekeepers were learning to be a little more lenient here in District 12 after the President of Panem had heard about what had happened.

Apparently, what happened to Katniss and I was not authorized at all by anyone. The Peacekeepers who had captured us were rogues within the Capitol, going against the President, because they still felt like they had to serve under President Snow’s rule even after he was deceased. They were punished most severely for their actions.

            “Stop frolicking and keep up, would you?” Katniss called ahead of me. I snapped out of my loving daze for nature and went back to focusing on the task at hand. Katniss stood on a log, watching impatiently for me. “Game isn’t going to kill itself.”

            Sometimes I wished for once I could venture over the district boundary alone and enjoy nature. However, I really didn’t like going into the woods alone, so that wish would hardly come true in time.

I followed Katniss, leaping over the log, trying not to drop my bow or arrows. Katniss managed to have a spare set with her and let me have it. Her hijacking had ceased, so she was back to her old self, hunting even though she didn’t really need to do it anymore. Some habits were just too hard to break.

 We were stalking quietly, hoping to find something to snag today. Since Gale was working in what was left of the mines, Katniss stopped by the house to take me hunting. We had been doing this since last month.

            I caught up to Katniss, walking side by side with her. I scanned the woods, looking for any animal to kill. The walk was quiet, being that we both saw there to be no reason to talk when I couldn’t really, and if I tried saying anything, Katniss most likely wouldn’t be paying attention to me.

            After an hour of an unsuccessful hunt, Katniss and I took a rest at a place I was familiar with: twenty trees formed a circle around us, the targets still drawn on them from when I was trained that one day by Gale and Peeta. I sat on the ground, fiddling with the grass, Katniss sat opposite me.

            “We’ve had better days,” she sighed. I nodded as I pulled a few blades of grass out of the earth.

            “How’re you and Peeta?” I mouthed.

            “Good. Things are changing for us.”

            “In what way?”

            “I don’t just hunt anymore. He’s teaching me how to draw a little bit. It’s therapeutic to me somehow, I don’t know why. Are things going well at home?”

            “Yup,” I confirmed. I looked down at the blade of grass I twisted through my fingers. “Life just feels so…different now.”

            “But in a good way,” Katniss mused. “Do you want to head back? I don’t think there’s any game to go looking for today, it’s been pretty quiet except for the birds.”

            I rose, indicating that I did want to leave. Katniss understood, and we hitchhiked back through the woods to the district fence. Along the way, I thought of the crazy times I had in those two weeks that all the chaos erupted in. The first day I went into the woods was the first day I ever met Katniss in person.